Monday, 14 January 2013

S'more Cake Recipe

Next week’s cake club has the theme “New” – I
immediately thought of New York and all the lovely cake I ate there on my last
visit. One highlight was s’more pie, lovingly described in a blogpost entitled
Oh God I Am So Full. According to Wikipedia, a s’more is “a traditional nighttime campfire treat popular in the
US and Canada, consisting of a roasted marshmallow and a layer of chocolate
sandwiched between two pieces of graham cracker". So tasty you want “s’more”.

As the first rule of cake
club is no pies, no tarts, no cupcakes, no brownies, no anything that isn’t one
large cake, I decided to badger my Canadian cousins for a s’more cake recipe
and was directed to this amazing-looking s’more cake by Fat Girl Trapped in a Skinny Body I baulked at making such a large and complex cake and opted instead for a simpler s’more cake recipe she also shared.

The problem about making s’mores in the UK is
that it’s very hard to get hold of the key ingredient: graham crackers. I was
advised to use digestive biscuits instead and as they’re crumbed in this recipe
anyway, it’s probably OK. The other problem is North America’s baffling use of cups for measuring things that aren't breasts.

I’ve “translated” this recipe into grams for
Europeans with the help of my Nigella Lawson cups and some kitchen scales.

Ingredients

For the cake:

100ml vegetable oil

80g apple sauce (yes, this surprised me. I
worried that apple sauce is something else in America. Like when they say a man
is wearing suspenders. HILARIOUS)

3 eggs

200g caster sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

200g digestive biscuit crumbs (= 14 biscuits)

90g plain wholewheat flour

3 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

350ml evaporated milk

For the marshmallow frosting:

100g unsalted butter at room temperature

300g icing sugar

8 oz jar of marshmallow fluff

Marshmallow fluff has started popping up
in supermarkets like Asda. I was quite excited to learn that, unlike most
marshmallow products, it’s vegetarian and I was free to gorge on it.

Dark chocolate ganache:

100g double cream

100g dark chocolate broken into small pieces

Method

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius/gas
mark 3 and grease and line two 8 inch baking tins

In a large bowl, mix the vegetable oil, apple
sauce, eggs and vanilla extract

In a separate bowl, mix the digestive crumbs,
flour, salt and baking powder

Add this to the liquid mixture alternately with
the evaporated milk

Divide the batter between the two tins and bake
for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool the cakes in the tins
for 10 minutes, then allow them to cool completely a wire rack

Once the cakes are cool, mix the frosting by
beating the icing sugar and butter with a splash of water until smooth. Then
add the marshmallow fluff and beat until it is all combined

Sandwich the two cakes together with the
frosting. You might not need to use all the frosting

Heat the cream in a saucepan until it is
simmering, remove from the heat and add the dark chocolate. Allow the chocolate
to sit in the cream for a couple of minutes, then beat it with a spatula into a
smooth glossy ganache

Spread the ganache over the top of the cake.
You can decorate the top with chocolate chips and mini marshmallows, or as I
did use leftover frosting

Verdict

I wasn’t entirely convinced by this cake – the
sponge has an almost savoury taste like Cornflakes while the frosting is super
sweet. I gave the s’more cake to a group of friends who said it was delicious.
Maybe they were being polite. Maybe they had the munchies. I don’t know. But
hey, look at his funny little face!

About Me

I love making cake, decorating cake, talking about cake and of course eating cake. I live in Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyne and have my own cake making company Cake Poppins. If you like looking at pictures of cake, please visit www.cakepoppins.co.uk.